Awakening the Mare (Fall of Man Book 1) Read online

  “He wasn’t really here, it was a transportation image.”

  “I wasted an arrow.”

  “It’s over there.” I pointed.

  He grabbed my arm. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Did he say anything to—”

  “No, I… I have to see Davis.”

  “Let me get my arrow and I’ll take you. With that thing coming here, it can’t be good.”

  I didn’t respond, but more than he knew, Tanner was right. It wasn’t good.

  41. Deciphering the Truth

  Tanner seemed mad at me because I was speaking to Iry. He led me like a prisoner to the horse and cart and took me to find Davis in the city.

  Davis was, of course, where he always was during the day: at his headquarters.

  Tanner badgered me for information, but I thought it was important that Davis hear it first. I guess this irritated Tanner, because he grew angrier with me with each passing minute. Hand on my arm, in a manner I didn’t like, Tanner took me to the headquarters and led me inside.

  “We have problems.” Tanner announced.

  Davis cleared his throat and stood from his desk. “Did she blow up more things?”

  I yanked my arm from Tanner. “I am not your criminal and I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Oh, yeah? How about communicating with the enemy?”

  “I was not communicating with the enemy. It was out of my control.”

  “Hold on.” Davis held up his hand. “Both of you sit.” He nodded to the chairs near his desk.

  Again, Tanner reached for me and I stepped back, taking my seat. “Tell him to stop treating me like this.”

  “Tanner,” Davis said, looking at him, “stop treating Vala like that.” He turned to me. “How is he treating you?”

  “Like a criminal.”

  “What happened?” Davis asked.

  I tried to answer, but Tanner spoke at the exact same time and his words mixed with mine, so we both started talking louder to be heard.

  “Enough!” Davis yelled. “Tanner, five words. What happened?”

  Tanner counted on his fingers as he spoke. “She met with the enemy.”

  Vala,” Davis said. “Five words.”

  “Iry transported to see me.”

  “Iry?” Davis asked “The boyfriend?”

  “The enemy’s your boyfriend?” Tanner asked.

  “He is not my boyfriend. He is my former educator.”

  “Then why is he bringing you flowers?” questioned, Davis.

  “He brought you flowers, too?” Tanner peeped out. “Wait. When? So this isn’t the first rendezvous?”

  “It was one flower. One. And he brought it to track me,” I said. “He gave me the flower so he could find me. But I gave it to Davis, so he kept going to him.”

  “That’s interesting information,” Davis stated. “That it can be an object, not just a person.”

  “Davis,” Tanner snapped. “We have a problem. Really, this guy is a Sybaris. How many times has he come to her?”

  “Four,” I answered before Davis could. “But I never summoned him, and this is the first time he came outside of sleep. Because of the flower.”

  “She was standing there talking to him like it was a nice visit,” Tanner told Davis. “She was smiling.”

  “He said something funny.”

  “Really?” Davis asked. “What was funny? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m curious as to what Sybaris humor is like.”

  Tanner mumbled, “Probably along the lines of ‘why did the pig cross the road’.”

  “What Iry said that made me smile was how he kept ending up with Davis when he tried to find me,” I said. “That’s all.”

  “Tanner,” David said, “why are you so mad?’

  “Because she isn’t afraid of him. She is nice to him. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe she isn’t a set up.”

  “Oh, stop,” Davis said sharply. “She’s not, and don’t let me hear you say that again. Vala, did Iry say why he came?”

  I nodded. “Yes. Two reasons, one of which concerns me. The other night when he gave me the flower, I mentioned about my mother giving her blood. He came to tell me that she was telling the Sybaris I was returning and was taking bribes to influence my choice. She also was offering her blood as a good faith measure.”

  Tanner audibly scoffed. “Oh, please, he’s lying. Whose mother would do that?”

  Davis simply answered, “Hers,” then looked at me. “What else?”

  “Nito, the highest of Ancients,” I said. “She wants me and has called for me. Iry said she is going to send Day Stalkers as a warning if I don’t return, and she’ll keep sending them until I do.”

  “Did he explain to you why he was telling you all this?” Davis asked.

  “Yes, he said I should return to Akana on my own, be offered up in the ceremony, and choose him.”

  “Did it dawn on you he was lying to get you to go?” Tanner asked.

  “It did,” I replied. “I don’t know what to believe. Davis?”

  Davis folded his hands and calmly looked at me. “I have to say he’s lying. Vala, this former educator is obsessed with you. You are a Mare, he wants that. He’s pursuing you. He told you the Day Stalkers were coming just to get you to go to him, that’s all.”

  “What about my mother?”

  “Well, I might believe that, only because I knew your mother. But the Day Stalkers aren’t coming,” Davis said assuredly. “They are far away. North and East. How are they going to get here? We went to great lengths to draw them away.”

  “Why would she use the Day Stalkers though?” I asked. “Why not say Nito was sending Ancient soldiers? He specifically said the Day Stalkers.”

  “Why do you want to believe him?” Tanner snapped.

  “Because he’s always been different. Even though I never trusted him, he’s not the same as other Sybaris. He tried to be sincere and honest with us students.”

  “You are important to him,” Davis said. “He needs you, wants to claim you, and will say anything to get you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to have a child with you.”

  “Sybaris don’t mate.” I said.

  “Not with each other they don't,” Davis said. “But they can mate with humans. There have been incidents where Savage Sybaris have had their way with a woman and impregnated her. The results, well,” he exhaled, “the mother dies during birth and the child is a deadly abomination.”

  “What happens to the child after the mother dies?”

  “We were merciful. Let’s leave it at that,” Davis said. “It had to be done.”

  “Davis, I have lived in Akana a long time, and I never heard of interbreeding. They choose human children, raise them, and then turn them.”

  “They never had a Mare, Vala. It’s been said that if a Civilized wants ultimate power, all he or she has to do is mate with a Mare. The child will be special. And it’s never happened. He wants you so he’ll tell you anything to get you. That’s it. Simple enough.”

  “So there are no Day Stalkers coming?”

  “I promise you,” Davis stated. “They aren’t coming. It’s impossible.”

  Davis looked so certain. I hoped he was right. While I had never been close to a Day Stalker, I’d heard stories. The thought of them scared me to death.

  42. Riding with Marie

  There was something uncertain in Marie’s eyes after I told her about the reassurance I received from Davis in regards to Iry’s warning. Did she think otherwise? I asked her about it and she shook her head and smiled.

  The next morning, when I returned from my patrol, she was different.

  “Vala, can you not take your morning nap? There’s something I want to do with you.”

  “Absolutely,” I told her. “I can skip it.”

  “No, no. No need to skip, just delay, you can forgo the fields today. I know Mindy has been attached to your hip since Davis wanted you to get to know her. You need a diversion from that. Also, it’s warm outs
ide, and instead of picking, you can squash grapes.”

  “Oh! I have been waiting to do that. Season five, episode twenty-three of Lucy. Thank you!”

  “You’re welcome. This is very important, and it’s our secret. Can you keep a secret?”

  “Yes. What are we doing?”

  She lifted what I called a ‘saddle sack’ from the table, and waved for me to follow her. We walked outside and headed to the back of her property where the stables were.

  “You can ride, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, I’m pretty good.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Are we going off alone?”

  “Yes. I want you to see something and it can only be experienced through me. Again, this is our secret and what I am going to tell you has to stay with you.”

  I placed my hand over my heart. “I swear.”

  I adjusted the saddle on Roughneck, the horse. I liked him. Even though his name was harsh, he was gentle and he reminded me of Casey. His coat was silky light brown and he had a white streak of fur against his chest. I ran my hand down his mane, thinking of my Casey. A part of me believed my horse had not been killed, just subdued with the poison of the arrows. I hoped that, I really did. I hoped that Casey rose, shook off the fog of the drug, and rode off to freedom.

  Like me.

  Marie didn’t say much, just that we had about an hour’s travel. We rode at a good pace, toward the mountains. We approached a hill, trotted up to the top, Marie leading the way, then we stopped.

  From where we stood, we could see small, quaint town nestled in the green mountains. There was something different about it, however.

  It wasn’t overgrown with trees and foliage. It looked like a normal town with only spots of green. None of the houses were buried or hidden under trees or vines. After a decade, surely a regeneration of nature would have occurred. Nature was stubborn. Like man wanted the world back from the Sybaris, Nature wanted to reclaim its land as well. This town was barely touched by the process.

  I didn’t see anyone, not a soul, not even an animal. “Do people live here?” I asked.

  “Not anymore. At one time, in its peak, there were twenty-five hundred people that lived here. Before the event, not even a thousand people lived here.”

  This made quickly look at her. “It got more people after the event?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it cursed?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “Because even in Lyons Estates, homes are overgrown. Nature took over. Where is the high grass, the vines, the overgrowth of the foliage?”

  “It’s there,” Marie replied. “Just not much, because it’s only been empty a few years.”

  “Did you live here?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I lived here most of my life. This is home. I’ll explain it all.” She snapped the reins to her horse and trotted down the hill to the town.

  As we drew closer I could see that life was gone. The barren town was exhibiting the beginning signs of natural regeneration. There was a main street blocked by old trucks.

  I kept a few paces behind Marie, sensing her sadness. She stopped the horse and peered to her right.

  “The pit,” she said.

  I looked over to see a huge black circle. It looked like the remnants of the biggest bonfire I could ever imagine. “What is it?’

  “It’s where we burned the bodies.” A snap of reins and she trotted a little closer to town.

  She slowed to a complete halt and dismounted, tying the horse to the handle of one of the trucks.

  I did the same.

  She grabbed her saddle sack. “This way.” We walked down a narrow street of little homes. The third one in, she froze.

  “This is your home.”

  “Yes.” She breathed out in her answer. She had such a look of reflection and remorse on her face, I felt it. “When the sickness hit America, we were spared. The war started and freakish natural disasters happened. People claimed they were brought on by weapons.” She shrugged. “I didn’t know, because it never touched us. We believed, you know, we were spared by God. News traveled that the west was the best place to go and people came. Most people, like your mother, went further south toward Mexico. But a lot of people made a pilgrimage here and we welcomed them.” She walked up the path to the simple one-story home and to the door. “This town did well. When Los Angeles fell to violence, we survived. When earthquakes flattened the northwest, we didn’t feel a shake.” She opened the door. “When the Savage Sybaris constantly stalked Los Angeles, it was as if we were invisible to them.”

  I followed her in, stepping right into the living area. It looked untouched, very dusty. There was a mantel over a fireplace and on it were photographs. “Your husband,” I said.

  “That’s Leo.” She walked to the photographs. “He was all I had in the world.”

  “Why did you leave these here?”

  “I had Leo. I didn’t need the pictures. But that’s one of the reasons I am here.” She reached for the pictures, paused to look and smile at them, then placed three in her saddle bag. “This is all I need. One of the reasons I brought you here, Vala, is because I know I am safe with you. The other thing I want to do… well, just follow me.”

  She headed back to the door.

  “Don’t you want to take anything else?” I asked.

  “This is all I want. Everything else is here.” She pointed to her temple. “As you will soon know.”

  We left her home, leaving the door open, and started walking back down her street toward town. As soon as we hit the town square, the scenery told of a different story.

  Windows were broken, parts of buildings were burnt or destroyed, and splashes of what could have been blood were on the exterior of all the structures. I was mortified.

  “Like I said, we in this town were invisible to Savages. Want to know why?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Davis told you there was one Mare. Remember? That Mare lived here. Like they do with you, the Savages stayed away from us. We bartered with Angeles City, we were a haven. But Davis never bought it. He chalked up our invisibility to our location and not one person.”

  “If you were so protected, what happened here? Where is everyone?”

  “That’s the other reason I brought you here.”

  “To tell me?”

  Marie shook her head. “To show you. You have a gift, Vala.”

  “I know.”

  ‘No, you don’t. You have a gift that Davis and the others are unaware of. I know, because I knew the Mare. The other Mare… she was my older sister.”

  “Does Davis know that?”

  “Oh, yes. But Cecelia, my sister, never told of this gift to anyone. Except me. It is a weapon that you can use that isn’t deadly. You have abilities, as you know. However, this one, you weren’t told about. You can get the truth. The ability is extraordinary and is called retrocognition.” Marie grabbed for my wrist and held firm. “Look at me. Look at me and focus.”

  I locked on to her eyes and instantly I felt sluggish. My head spun and I was dizzy. I was connected with Marie and then suddenly, I wasn’t looking into her eyes, I was looking at Marie from a distance. It was a different time. I could tell by the way she looked. Her hair was shorter, less gray. It was as if I were a remote viewer. She was speaking to another woman.

  “It isn’t anything more than a dream, Celia,” Marie said to her sister. “These are no more than vivid dreams.”

  “No. No. She came to me again, I swear she did,” Cecilia responded. “She warned me. What should I do?”

  “You can’t go. You can’t trust this.”

  “She said she’d send them.”

  I went from witnessing the conversation as if I were there, to looking at Marie again. I was confused. Send who? What warning?

  “Davis told you not to worry,” Marie said. “Davis told me not to worry as well, that the Day Stalkers weren’t a threat. No one had ever seen more than one or two a
t a time. We found out our little ‘God protected’ community wasn’t as infallible as we thought.” Again, she latched on to my wrist. I was transported back and I realized, Marie’s memories were now my experience.

  Hands and arms were all reaching, they had crashed through the glass of Marie’s window and reached in. So many of them.

  Gunshots rang out and the screams of the damned carried into the house. It was loud, unbelievably loud.

  Marie struggled to close the thick wooden interior shutter. Then Leo placed his rifle behind his back and aided her.

  Marie closed her eyes. “They’re everywhere out there.” She jolted when someone’s scream from outside carried to her.

  “Help me! Oh, God, help!”

  Marie turned.

  “No.” Leo stopped her. “Keep sealing the house. We’ll be fine.”

  “Our people are dying out there!” Marie said through sobs. “We can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

  “Yes, yes we can. We’re alive and safe.”

  Marie raised her head. Cecilia had stepped into the room.

  “This is my doing.” Cecelia said. “And I have to stop it.”

  Marie shook her head. “What can you do?”

  The wooden shutter burst open and dozens of arms reached in, grabbing onto Marie.

  She screamed in horror as they pulled at her. Then I got my first close look at a Day Stalker. His face pale, skin torn from one cheek. His neck had a huge gaping hole and the flesh that remained on his body was rotten.

  As soon as I saw him, I snapped out of that vision.

  Marie released my wrist.

  I was trembling and my heart was racing. I was there, I experienced Marie’s fear, her desperation, and even though the Day Stalkers never touched me, I could feel their cold hands on me. I saw what she did and I felt what she had.

  “When you cried out on the street during your patrol and killed the Savages, that was what Cecilia did,” Marie explained. “They had me. She just wanted to save me. Her blast of emotions wiped out the hundreds of Day Stalkers and many of the people in this town.”